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Pneumonia in both lungs. A continuous seizure coupled with high fever for 30 days. A "massive" brain haemorrhage. Sepsis. Withdrawal from the opioid painkiller Fentanyl…

Those are just some of the challenges New Yorker Larry Kelly faced while in a coma during the city's first COVID-19 surge in 2020.

He would spend 51 days on a ventilator and a total of 128 days in hospital before he was released to start extensive rehabilitation.

READ MORE: 'Longest reported' COVID-19 infection identified

Mr Kelly, a retired teacher, was one of New York City's first COVID-19 patients ⁠— the second to be admitted to Mount Sinai ⁠hospital in March — before a catastrophic surge in infections.

As the Sayville native's body struggled to fight the virus the then-64-year-old was given a slim chance of survival.

READ MORE: What we know about Omicron BA.2 sub-variant

When he wearily opened his eyes on Easter Sunday April 12, his recovery was deemed a "miracle".

Mr Kelly's experience with the virus is documented in the award-winning documentary The Surge at Mt Sinai.

He spoke to 9news.com.au two years on from his near-death experience and revealed he still struggles with flashbacks and PTSD.

"When it's quiet just before sleep late at night, sometimes, not all the time, it reminds me of going into the coma," he said.

"I have trouble sleeping.

"I don't like darkness now."

Doctors fought a fierce battle to save Mr Kelly, but two factors complicated his treatment; the virus ravaging is body was new to them and at the time, he was one of the longest patients to have even been on a ventilator.

"Everything that was happening with me was sort of experimental," he said.

"They were making it up as they went along.

"I was given Fentanyl for weeks. More than what was normally given I found out later. I had withdrawals in the coma.

"It took weeks for me to be weaned down on methadone."

Mr Kelly claims he had period of lucidity, while in the coma and the sense of terror was overwhelming.

"I had a continuous sense that someone was trying to kill me…I personified the virus," he said.

He explained he later told doctors he counted 10 days, only to be told he had been under for five times that.

"The coma was terrifying.

"I would scream at the virus, but after that I would start praying.

"It seemed like forever".

When Mr Kelly finally walked out of Mount Sinai's doors — after overcoming paralysis from his neck down — people around the world breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Fast forward almost two years and he just has some atrophy in his hands and a drop foot, which is "getting better".

But aspects of Mr Kelly's case still puzzle doctors today.

"After the brain haemorrhage the blood reabsorbed back into my brain, doctors can't explain why," he said.

As COVID-19 cases one again surge around the world with the spread of multiple infectious Omicron strains, Mr Kelly has one message; get vaccinated.

"I really believe we are in a war," he said.

"The virus is responsible for so many ills around the world; the economy, unemployment, homelessness.

"We won't get back to that 'flu-normal' until everyone is vaccinated.

"So get a little needle in your arm. It's not about personal freedom, it's about how you feel about your fellow human beings."

Country music legend Naomi Judd – one half of the duo The Judds – has died, her daughter Ashley Judd has announced.

She was 76.

"Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered," Ashley Judd said in a statement on Twitter.

"We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public," the statement added. "We are in unknown territory."

Naomi and her daughter, Wynonna, began singing together as a professional act in the early 1980s, eventually producing a string of major hits, including "Mama He's Crazy" and "Love Can Build a Bridge."

The Judds completed what was billed as a Farewell Tour in 2011, but announced earlier this year a 10-date "Final Tour" that was scheduled to begin in September.

They performed together publicly for the first time in years earlier this month at the CMT Music Awards.

The duo was scheduled to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday.

In 2016, Naomi Judd opened up about mental illness during an appearance on "Good Morning America," saying she had been diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety. The singer said at that time she would "not leave the house for three weeks, and not get out of my pajamas, and not practice normal hygiene."

The same year, she wrote a book titled "River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope" explaining her struggles.

Over the course of seven years, The Judds won five Grammys and had 14 No. 1 singles, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Younger daughter Ashley Judd later became a celebrity in her own right as an actress.

A Member of Parliament in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party, Neil Parish, said he will resign after admitting twice watching pornography in the House of Commons.

Parish told the BBC the first time he viewed the explicit material was an accident after searching online for farm vehicles. The second time was deliberate and a "moment of madness," the 65-year-old said.

Johnson's government is currently engulfed in numerous scandals, just days ahead of crucial local elections. The Prime Minister himself has been fined by police for breaching his own Covid rules during the 2020 lockdown, and faces an investigation into whether he misled Parliament about parties in Downing Street.

And last week, his party was accused of having a serious misogyny problem, after one of his backbenchers anonymously claimed to a newspaper that Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, distracted Johnson in the House of Commons by crossing and uncrossing her legs, similar to Sharon Stone's character in the movie "Basic Instinct."

Parish admitted on Saturday that his behaviour in Parliament was "totally wrong." "The situation was that I, funnily enough, it was tractors that I was looking at. And so I did get into another website that had a sort of very similar name. And I watched it for a bit which I shouldn't have done.

"My biggest crime is that on another occasion I went in a second time. And that was deliberate."

He described it as a "moment of madness and also totally wrong."

The politician's local Conservative association in Tiverton and Honiton, in western England, said in a statement Saturday: "We would like to take this opportunity to thank Neil Parish for his service to our communities over the past twelve years. We support his decision to step down as our Member of Parliament."

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